The Asheville citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1885-1889, 1887-02-04

The MoRMoNs ARE HERE.
The following sent US by gentleman
who knows whereof he speaks gives the
information that we have the delightful
Mormon in our midst:
AeSSrs. Editors The Mormon Saints
are extending their mission work into
Buncombe. The Legislature should al
once pass stringent anti-Mormon law
If this is not done the good and wise
people of this mountain country may
give these sanity missionaries a fen
doses of 'hickory twist" The innocent
and illiterate people of our country should
at least be protected from such outrages
as are perpetrated upon them by these
Mormon tramps. Let every body reat
the article below. J. F. A.
Weayerville, n. c., Tan. %, 1887.
TIE A4sEs:cN1 IN TIE SoUTH.-Nothina
can better illustrate the persistence o.
the Mormons in their defiance of the
law and pubic sentiment and morality
than their proselyting campaign in the
South. They have, for many years past
conducted their operationsin in the Eastern
portion of Tennessee, and the neighbor
ing States, with Chattanooga as their cen
ter. These operations were confined tc
the more ignorant inhabitants of the
mountains; and 30 secretly conducted
that little was known of them, even
among the people of the nelghborhood
until the spring time, when several hun
dred converts, mainly young women fol
the Utah harems gathered at Chat
tanooga, and were shipped to Salt Lake
City.
An investigation made by Kate Field
and others of the Southern immigrants
in Utah showed them to be in state oi
great poverty, and often absolute suffer
ing; but held in subjection as they were
by the Mormon Church and surrounded
by Mormon spies, they were unable to
get away, and afraid even to complain.
The active spirit in which prose1ytine
was carried on excited the people of the
districts from which "the Saints" secured
most oftheirrecruits, and active measures
we're inaugurated against them. The
whipping of several Mormon elders in
Georgia first called attention to the mag.
nitude OF this evil; the Legislature of that
State took notice of it, and bill was
passed aimed at the prevention Mormon
ism with its accompaniment of polYgamy,
The contest has latterly been transfer
red to Tennessee, where the Saints, un.
der Elder Morgan, have been unusually
active. A couple of years ago a riot
broke out in Lewis county in consequ
ence of the presence of Mormon mission.
aries there, in which two elders were
killed. The Legislature, recognizing the
danger, passed a law making it a felony
to preach the doctrine ofpolyGamy.
The law, it seems. the missionaries
have been able to get around, and they
have conducted their operations in Ten
nessee of late as vigorously as ever. The
Legislature recognizes the necessity o.
some more stringent measure directed
against..the Mormons than that now or
the statute book, and is preparing to leg.
islate again against the Saints. The new
bill before the Tennessee Legislature
makes it unlawful for any person to teach
or promulgate any polygamoas doctrines
publicly or privately, or to bring into the
State any books or pamphlets advocating
the same, the penalty for violation O
the law being imprisonment in the peni
tentiary.
No Southern State can allow itself ia
become the field for operations for th'
Mormon missionaries, and Tennessee il
acting wisely in taking steps to preven
their deceiving its people and taking then
away to lives of infamy and suffering il
Utah.-NeW Orleans Times Democrat.